Triple lock

Well, there you are ww ......sometimes waiting to see what happens is the best thing, otherwise it's just speculation.
dd you are eligible for the free bus pass,( I got it at 60) also reductions at cinema
Hairdresser etc.Sometimes you have to ask, but there are definitely things to claim.

No, I'm not eligible for a free bus pass. I enquired. I think it depends which county you live in.

If you know of anything else, please let me know.

I would have to look Daphne but you are unlikely to get many of them prior to SPA as you are a women. A lot of them had to be paid to men because women got the 'benefit' earlier. With the alignment of SPA this will be disappearing. I have a feeling that free bus passes are paid at a set age which applies to both.

Men who were/are unemployed could - and I think can still can just - claim Pension Credit (if their savings, etc., allowed) if they had reached the equivalent women's SPA and then claim their own pension when they reached their SPA. This would apply to Winter Fuel Allowance and Cold Weather Payment. Once the ages of men and women come together this will disappear.

Older people (male or female) become eligible at the female age of retirement. If you were born before 6 April 1950 you are eligible for a concessionary pass.

www.essexhighways.org/Transport-and-Roads/Getting-Around/Bus/Fares-and-bus-passes/Concessionary-fares.aspx

My retirement age is in 2021.

The Council runs a benefit checking service. I went along a couple of months ago and was told that I'm not eligible for anything.

I will be sure to come back and tell you if I come across anything daphne. It sounds as if you were caught up in the Waspi debacle. Sometimes something does come out of the woodwork benefits wise. I only learnt by having a conversation with someone that you can claim exemption from Council Tax if you had severe mental disability which applies to a proportion of those with Dementia. I managed to get it for mum but it is hardly mentioned anywhere. I will have a little lurk on the benefits site I visit occasionally and see if anyone has come up with anything. It would be really good if something could be found for at least some of the poorer Waspi women although something really should be done for all of them - it was iniquitous.

I actually don't agree with Waspi's aims. I find it incredible that women have lived for 25 years without knowing their pension age and don't agree that women that shouldn't have the same pension age as men.

What I do disagree with is the benefit changes which have affected women born since 1953, which weren't publicised and have caught many us unaware at very short notice.

I also object to the new state pension penalising people (men and women) who paid into occupational pensions. I don't think it's unfair in itself, because we didn't pay full NICs, but it was all done at short notice, not allowing any chance to make other arrangements. I also had some years when I wasn't paying into an occupational pension and was expecting to receive SERPs, but that's been abolished and I won't be compensated.

My state pension record says I will have 46 years of contributions, but I still won't receive the full flat rate state pension and I can't increase it.

I don't agree with the triple lock, but I was calculating on receiving at least a 2.5%pa increase on my current projected pension.

Quite honestly, I'm becoming reconciled to the fact that I was born at the wrong time and there's nothing I can do about it. It's bloody annoying though!

How come that DD ?- used to be 40 years contributions and you have done more. I think for a short while it went down to 30 but soon back up. Did you pay into SERPS? DH did and he gets some extra payment to reflect this and also Earnings related and Graduated but these elements of his pension have never increased in more than ten years.
Also just prior to receiving my State pension I had the option to pay in a small amount which gave me some catch up money on my pension - we took the offer but were totally mystified as to how that bit worked.
The whole things is a mess and could do with sorting out but giving people time to adjust.
I was reading on another European group who were saying that Spain. Sweden and other European countries have far higher pension payments than the UK. I had not realised that.

SERPS was abolished when the new single pension was introduced, which means lower earners benefited while anybody who had paid in more receive less.

I paid into three different occupational pensions during my working life and do not receive full state pension for those years. The NICs for those years were instead paid to my occupational pension schemes, which I topped up.

I'm not exactly sure how much has been deducted, but is seems to be about £32pw. I think only 27 of the 44 years count towards my state pension.

In a way I can see that's fair. Current employees in occupational pension schemes pay full NICs PLUS their occupational pension contributions (ie about 24% of earnings), which is one of the reasons younger people feel so resentful of older people on very generous pensions. I'm not going to go into that here, but they're paying 24% pension contributions, 20% income tax and, in many cases, 9% on student loans plus facing a much higher SPA and astronomical housing costs. I really think it's totally unfair that pensioners have been protected from "austerity".

However, I object to the short notice that we've been given. I already live very frugally and can't afford to do anything about it now, but I could have done if I'd known 20 or 30 years ago.

The side effect of all the chopping and changing means that younger people don't have confidence in the pension system,because they're not guaranteed the payments they've been promised.

Yes, other European countries have paid far more into their pensions. For all the moaning, many current pensioners really have not paid for their pensions. That's not their fault, because they didn't know, but governments have stepped back from reforming the system for years to avoid upsetting their "grey voters".

Add to all that the crisis in the NHS and social care and the country is in crisis and it will remain so, until the baby boomer generation works its way through the system. Quite simply, there aren't enough working age people to sustain an older, increasingly frail population.

The Institute of Fiscal Studies and the Work and Pensions Select Committee think that neither the triple lock nor a double lock is sustainable in the long term. They are advocating a system based on the increase in average earnings with temporary adjustments when CPI is running ahead of average earnings.

www.ifs.org.uk/publications/9165

Correction 46 years not 44 years.

It's all so confusing. Aarrgghh!

Yep, I'll be getting my state pension at 66. 41 years contribution record, but opted out for years, so my forecast under the new scheme is just over £100 a week. The fact that I paid slightly less onto the NI pot whilst opted out counts against me, but the SERPS I paid in for the other years does not count towards it. One of my pension pots was embezzled by its trustees back in the 80s, so all I got for those four years of contributions was a very polite letter saying sorry, there's no money left!

Transitional state pension arrangements are in place for a few years though, so I'll get what I would have got under the old system, which is a higher amount.

I'd love a free bus pass. DH got his at 60, as does everyone across the UK still apart from some unlucky areas of England, mine being one.

Absolutely everyone seems to love their bus pass. One of Labours inspired ideas

Not everybody, not those that get travel sick on buses, especially local and urban stop/start/routes or routes round minor country roads. I do, so no bus pass, but I love my Senior Rail Card.

The rules had a change then for a while as I always paid full NIC plus occupational pension contributions. The only part I did not pay was SERPS as you could not pay that and pay into an occupational pension. All teachers were automatically 'opted out'. It was a lot of deductions at source with tax as well - and the personal allowance was less.

I think May is likely to get rid of the triple lock. It may be, though, that she is not saying anything at the moment for fear of losing out on young people's votes - they have been convinced that all pensioners are living in the lap of luxury. Conversely, Labour may gain a few current pensioners' votes but lose younger people's votes.

I can understand young people feeling aggrieved - because they certainly are disadvantaged in the housing and employment market as compared to previous generations. However, I think they are misguided in blaming pensioners.

Our state pension is still very low compared to average wages and to what people in other developed countries receive. It is only people who have very good occupational pensions who are braving the storm. Sadly, occupational pensions are unlikely in the future to be as generous as they are now because final salary schemes are all being closed. So in a few years' time, if the triple lock has been abandoned, many new pensioners will definitely be feeling the pinch as state pensions will be well on the way to previous poverty levels.

Yes eleothan that makes absolute sense.

I think the rules only changed in April 2016, ie no one has been able to opt out since then, Welshwife. I always thought I'd paid full NI contributions, but it turns out that I paid less than the full 12% when I was opted out. I think we paid 11.5%, but may be wrong. Whatever the difference, I certainly wasn't aware that opting out would affect my state pension - we were actively encouraged to opt out in the 80s. It was the way to go, apparently.

That is interesting Maggie we paid what then was the full NI contributions and were only opted out of the SERPS part. Of course the NI contributions only gave the basic pension - which is what I have but I am lucky enough to have the occupational one too - not a full one but enough to make a difference to our lives.

Oh it's all got very confusing

Eloethan I don't think they directly blame pensioners. I've had many conversations with my own two children about it. What they resent is that pensioners vote in their own interests against the interests of others - and the baby boom bulge has a greater effect on voting totals than that of any other cohort. They're the ones paying for current pensioners, in addition to contributing to their own pensions.

It's now been shown that the percentage of 18-24 year olds who voted in the referendum wasn't as low as previously thought. The vast majority of them voted Remain, but there are fewer of them. It's the same with elections, which is why so many of them have just given up.

Our state pensions aren't low in the context of how much we've paid in. People in most developed countries have paid in far more and don't have separate occupational pensions.

I know I'm acting against my own self-interest, but still think that the triple (and even double) lock pension is grossly unfair.